ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A federal judge in Florida on Monday voided the national mask mandate covering airlines and other public transportation as exceeding the authority of U.S. health officials in their response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The mandate, recently extended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, covered a vast array of transportation, from airplanes and trains to city subways and ride-sharing vehicles such as Uber.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, also said the CDC improperly failed to justify its decision and did not follow proper rule-making procedures that left it fatally flawed.
In her 59-page ruling, Mizelle said the CDC had relied on a 1944 law, the Public Health Service Act, to impose the mandate. But the government's argument that it put the mask requirement in place for the purpose of "sanitation" falls short, Mizelle argued.
The case was brought on behalf of the Health Freedom Defense Fund, described in the judge's order as a nonprofit group that "opposes laws and regulations that force individuals to submit to the administration of medical products, procedures and devices against their will," and airline passengers, including Ana Daza, who said she has anxiety aggravated by wearing masks.
Mizelle found for the plaintiffs on three key issues, ruling that the CDC had exceeded its legal authority, that it had improperly avoided notice and comment procedures, and that its mandate was "arbitrary and capricious."
The Transportation Security Administration said Monday night that it will no longer enforce the mask requirement.
The Justice Department declined to comment when asked if it would seek an emergency stay to block the judge's order. The CDC also declined to comment.
The White House said the court ruling means that for now the mask order "is not in effect at this time."
"This is obviously a disappointing decision," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. "The CDC is recommending wearing a mask on public transit."
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was not directly involved in the case but has battled against many government coronavirus requirements, praised the ruling in a statement on Twitter.
"Great to see a federal judge in Florida follow the law and reject the Biden transportation mask mandate. Both airline employees and passengers deserve to have this misery end," DeSantis tweeted.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge expressed her approval after news broke of Monday's decision.
In March, Rutledge joined a coalition of 20 states in a separate lawsuit filed against the mask mandate.
"We must all work together to protect personal freedoms!" Rutledge posted on Twitter after Monday's decision and later told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette it was a victory for those who want to protect personal freedoms.
"The decision vindicates our multi-state coalition's argument that President Biden's administration overstepped its authority, and it is a reminder of the critical role that attorneys general play in upholding the rule of law and checking federal overreach," Rutledge said in an email to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
EXTENSION DECISION
The CDC recently extended the mask mandate, which was set to expire Monday, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus that is now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S.
The mandate covered all types of transportation in the U.S. as well as requiring masks in any transportation hubs, such as an airport, seaport or bus terminal. It wasn't immediately clear Monday whether some of these entities would continue to require masks on their own.
United Airlines said in a statement that, effective immediately, masks would no longer be required on domestic flights or certain international flights.
"While this means that our employees are no longer required to wear a mask -- and no longer have to enforce a mask requirement for most of the flying public -- they will be able to wear masks if they choose to do so, as the CDC continues to strongly recommend wearing a mask on public transit," United said.
Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines also made similar announcements. Airports in Houston and Dallas almost immediately did away with their mandates after the TSA announcement.
The Association of Flight Attendants, the nation's largest union of cabin crews, has recently taken a neutral position on the mask rule because its members are divided about the issue. On Monday, the union's president appealed for calm on planes and in airports.
"The last thing we need for workers on the frontlines or passengers traveling today is confusion and chaos," union leader Sara Nelson said.
Nelson said it takes airlines 24 to 48 hours to put new procedures in place and tell employees about them. She said passengers should check with airlines for updates about travel requirements.
In New York, Metropolitan Transportation Authority communications director Tim Minton said, "We are continuing to follow CDC guidelines and will review the Florida court order."
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority operates New York City buses and subway trains as well as two commuter rail lines. Face coverings have been mandatory on all trains and buses since early in the pandemic.
The federal mask requirement for travelers was the target of months of lobbying from the airlines, which sought to kill it. The carriers argued that effective air filters on modern planes make transmission of the virus during a flight highly unlikely. Republicans in Congress also fought to kill the mandate.
Critics have seized on the fact that states have rolled back rules requiring masks in restaurants, stores and other indoor settings, and yet covid-19 cases have fallen sharply since the omicron variant peaked in mid-January.
There have been a series of violent incidents on aircraft that have mainly been attributed to disputes over the mask-wearing requirements.
CDC TRAVEL ADVISORY
The CDC updated its international covid-19 travel advisory system Monday, designating its highest-risk category for extreme scenarios. As of Monday, the CDC dropped all countries from its "Level 4" category, now labeled "Special Circumstances/Do Not Travel."
About 120 destinations now have a Level 3 advisory -- including Australia, the United Kingdom, Italy and many other popular European destinations -- for "high" levels of the coronavirus, while 12 destinations sit at Level 2. Another 55 are designated Level 1, its lowest-risk level.
"To help the public understand when the highest level of concern is most urgent, this new system will reserve Level 4 travel health notices for special circumstances, such as rapidly escalating case trajectory or extremely high case counts, emergence of a new variant of concern, or healthcare infrastructure collapse," the agency said in a statement last week.
The three lower-level warnings will continue to be determined mainly by 28-day coronavirus incidence or case counts.
"With this new configuration, travelers will have a more actionable alert for when they should not travel to a certain destination (Level 4), regardless of vaccination status, until we have a clearer understanding of the COVID-19 situation at that destination," the statement continued.
During the pandemic, the CDC has updated weekly its list of countries travelers should avoid because of the coronavirus, with its "Level 4" warning indicating very high levels of the coronavirus.
Before this last update, about 90 countries were in the Level 4 category.
The State Department also shares its own advisories. Those include threats such as terrorism and natural disasters, while factoring in CDC recommendations.
PHILADELPHIA EDICT
The city of Philadelphia has become the first major U.S. city to reinstate an indoor mask mandate this spring, responding to sharply rising numbers of new coronavirus cases.
The mandate, which took effect Monday, requires masks in all indoor public places, although businesses have the option of choosing instead to require proof of vaccination from their employees and customers. It was reimposed a little more than a month after the city lifted it in early March.
Philadelphia's decision to reinstate the mandate comes as the omicron subvariant BA.2 has reversed the decline in new-case counts throughout the Northeast. But it is spreading in a country that is better vaccinated now than it was when the delta variant arrived around this time last year, and one that has more antiviral medication options available than before.
Still, many people have long since lost their appetite for vigilance.
"From the kind of larger public health perspective, this is a constant dance that we are in, especially here in the United States, of when to put things into policy," said Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency physician and associate dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.
Philadelphia's reinstated mask requirement is based on its own covid mitigation guidelines, which differ from those of the federal CDC. The mandate kicked in automatically because the average number of new cases reported in the city had risen above 100 a day and, more significantly, had increased more than 50% in 10 days.
The latest CDC guidelines place more emphasis on hospital admissions and occupied hospital beds, which are measures of the strain on health care systems rather than direct gauges of infection risk. By the CDC's guidelines, Philadelphia was still solidly in the "low" category when the mask mandate was reinstated.
"The thing is, I could be wrong -- people two weeks from now could be laughing at me," said Cheryl Bettigole, the city's health commissioner. "But if I manage to save lives because I'm right, that's worth the risk."
NYC SCHOOL LAWSUIT
The Supreme Court is declining to wade into a lawsuit filed by four New York City public school employees over a policy that they be vaccinated against covid-19.
Lower courts had previously allowed the policy to go into effect while litigation continued, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor had also rejected an emergency request that the policy be put on hold. The justices said Monday they wouldn't get involved in the dispute. The justices did not say anything in rejecting the case and it was one of more than 100 the court turned away.
New York City began requiring public school employees to be vaccinated last fall. Courts had declined to bar the city from enforcing the policy, which applies to some 150,000 employees and has religious and medical exemptions.
Three of the teachers involved in the case have been fired and a fourth has taken extended leave.
Information for this article was contributed by Curt Anderson, David Koenig, Michael Balsamo, Will Weissert, Karen Matthews and staff members of The Associated Press; by Michael Laris, Scott Clement and Nathan Diller of The Washington Post; by Campbell Robertson of The New York Times; and by Stephen Simpson of The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.